


No Sleep Tonight

by braindelete



Category: Iron Man (Comic)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Maria Hill is getting real tired of your shit Tony, Tony is self destructive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 03:37:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braindelete/pseuds/braindelete
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria finds Tony at the end of his brain delete process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Sleep Tonight

Maria Hill hadn't slept a full night since... well, she couldn't remember when. It had started when she took the position of Director of SHIELD. She'd slept three hours a night at best and learned to run on a steady blend of caffeine and adrenaline. The super-hero Civil War decreased those precious hours down to minutes and since then she was lucky to do anything more than think about sleep.

Until the night she'd slept with Tony Stark... and found herself blissfully asleep in his arms. Of course, she woke up alone. That was the last time she'd seen him, with only a note to prove he'd been there. Maria would like to think she was surprised or offended.

She was neither.

When she finally saw Tony again he was a pathetic mess, curled up in the fetal position on a make-shift bed of dirty linen in a run down hovel of a house. He didn't remember her name, her face... and she figured he didn't remember himself or how he got there.

Then he threw up on her.

"I'm s-s-s-orry..." Tony stuttered.

Maria looked down at him, barely flinching at the vomit on her pants and shoes. She bent down and took his face in her hands trying to steady his twitching and shaking. His face was smattered with an overgrown, matted beard, his hair a messy mop of black hair in desperate need of a cut. His eyes were empty, void of recognition or really anything other than disorientation. This was not the Tony Stark she'd known, but an empty shell. He looked terrified and lost, like a stray mongrel dog.

"Don't worry about it, Tony. Let's... get you out of here." Maria coaxed with caution.

Tony stared at her. "You... know me?"

Maria flinched at that. The fear in his voice. The surprise... the relief.

"I do. I'm..." Maria paused. She wouldn't exactly say she was a friend, would she. "I'm an ally. I want to help you."

He pulled away from her and dug under the linens for a bag. Inside, there was a variety of notebooks in varying sizes and colors. He grabbed one, red, and on the cover it was labeled: "Important People: Don't Forget Them!" and he started to flip through. Maria winced at the sight of it. She wasn't sure exactly what he'd done to himself with his deletion process, but it had caused him to literally forget everyone... including her. She didn't have time to dwell, he'd returned his gaze to her, looking almost child-like in his questioning.

"Who are you?" he asked, gently.

Maria felt as though she'd been sucker punched in the gut. She shook it off, and if it could be said that she softened, well, she did. Anyone would at the sight of this. Probably even Nick Fury.

"I'm Maria... Maria Hill."

Tony scanned her face and then he began flipping through the pages frantically. He opened it to the correct page and looked rather pleased over his jottings.

"Hill, Maria. Former sub-director of SHIELD. The last time you saw her you sent her for the X Drive (see X Drive entry) at Futurepharm (see Futurepharm entry) to give to Captain America (see Captain America Entry). Bucky Barnes, not Steve Rogers. You have entries on both of them also. She is a friend. You can trust her."

Maria swallowed. Tony had called her a friend and she assumed it had been before he lost his mind.

"Well, then. Maria..." He extended his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you... again."

She smirked and shook his hand, before pulling him to his feet. He oofed a little from surprise and struggled to stand. Maria frowned and wrapped an arm around him to steady him.

"Let's get you out of here, and cleaned up... maybe to a doctor."

"No doctor... not right now..."

Maria reluctantly agreed. Tony came home with her.

 

Once back to her hide out (loaned to her by Natasha), she made Tony take a shower... but since he was shaky on his legs, he took a bath, washed his hair... When he finally came out of the bathroom, he looked a little more like himself, his beard shaved down to a trim van-dyke. His hair was much too long still, but they'd take care of it later. He was clean and human looking again.

"Thanks, Maria... for letting me clean up and stay here." He smiled softly.

She swallowed. He'd never thanked her before for anything. "You're welcome... why don't-- you should get some rest."

Maria helped him to bed, and he fell asleep rather quickly. She sighed, taking that moment to look through the mess of notebooks; all of them detailing everything he'd ever known... save the things he wanted to get rid of. He'd even chronicled the least desirable things so that he would remember, including that he was an alcoholic.

"Jesus, Stark..." She swallowed and looked over at his sleeping form.

Tomorrow, she decided, she'd make him see a doctor.

Maria sighed and closed the notebooks, replacing them in the bag before running her hands over her face. She didn't know what to do. She watched Tony dose there in her bed and occasionally found herself checking to make sure he was still breathing, check his pulse... maybe it was paranoia, but she didn't want to see him die like this. Finally, she crawled into bed beside him and looked up at the ceiling. In the morning, she'd contact Captain America, Steve Rogers not Bucky Barnes, and Pepper Potts to let them know that Tony was alive.

She might not get any sleep tonight, but... she was used to that by now.

Fin


End file.
